On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
“I am well in body although considerably rumpled up in spirit” — Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables, via @FelicityShoulders
“Maybe one of the Hall of Fame-level cons of all time was economists dressing up their discipline as an exact science, fake Nobel and all.”—@brunoc
Friday’s Finds
Friday’s finds on social media
grand theft autocomplete
On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
“Grand Theft Autocomplete is my new favourite term for LLMs.” —@ben
Marvin Minsky, a pioneer in the field of AI, was quoted in Life magazine — in 1970, “In from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being.” —AIWS.net
inescapable power
On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
“Listen, generative LLMs and art imaging tools will get better and better over time. If your opposition is based on crappy outputs, that problem will get solved.
Problems such as unsustainable resource consumption, unfair labour practices, accelerating wealth inequity and the absolute death of joyful creativity, however, will not be fixed.” —@barsoomcore
dangerous words
On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
I was in Long Beach in 2012 when Nick Hanauer gave his, “It’s absolute bullshit that the rich are job creators” TED talk. I was so eager to share it with co-workers and friends, I checked the TED site every day waiting for them to post it. I gave up after six months
It eventually showed up on YouTube but I don’t think TED ever put it on their site or even linked to it. I’m surprised they welcomed him back to the main stage just a couple years later. —@kims
we fight, they lose
On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
Note: Regular readers may have noticed that my blog posts are rather infrequent at this time. I am taking a break from blogging through the Summer and intend to be back this Autumn. There are over 3,500 older posts always available to peruse here.
“Everyone is tired because individually we’re trying to do all the things that can only really be achieved by communal living.” via @gemelliz
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” —John Kenneth Galbraith (2002)
understand and speak up
On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
Note: Regular readers may have noticed that my blog posts are rather infrequent at this time. I am taking a break from blogging through the Summer and intend to be back this Autumn. There are over 3,500 older posts always available to peruse here.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” —Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD)
road kill
On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
“Q. You know what AI is best at?
A. Propaganda”
—@GeorgeSnorwell
“I saw a post that asked: why is divestment political but investment is not? And I can’t stop thinking about it.” —@JackieGardina
“When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution … Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.” —Paul Virilio, Philippe Petit, Sylvère Lotringer (1999) Politics of the Very Worst
another earth day
On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.” —Jonathan Swift, via Ron Dyck
bamboozled 2024
On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
“Definition: Conspiracy Theory
—A belief that the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community, who have spent their lives researching the subject, missed something you figured out in two minutes due to your superior Google researching skills.” —Meanwhile in Canada
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” —Carl Sagan (1995) The Demon-haunted World
commuting waste
On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” —André Gide (1869-1951)
“You steal from one person and you’re a thief. You steal from everyone and you’re an AI company.” —Aral Balkan
“I’m going to exaggerate slightly, but it seems like one of the first applications of any new technology is making things even shittier for artists.” —Neal Stephenson, on generative AI